Tyra's Story
by htewing
Summary: PG for violence...this is a story about a young hare with a mysterious past, who goes on a quest to find out who she really is...*FINISHED* please R&R!
1. Prologue, and chapter 1

Prologue:  
  
Camp Tussock stood sentinal in Mossflower Woods, burning, the flames dancing happily as they burned the wood harder and harder. The flames burned higher and higher. Creatures inside, trapped by the burning wood, screamed in pain. A creature standing far away from the flames smiled as the flames subsided and the army gathered around the flames poured water on them to force them to subside.   
  
"Search for surviors!" the tawny pine marten called. "Bring any survivors to us at once, immediatly when you find them!"  
  
The rats searched the burnt rubble as thouroghly as they could. All they could find was a harebabe, not very old at all. They brought her immediatly to the main tent, where the pine marten awaited.  
  
"Ah, good. Bundle 'er into 'ere fer us, now."  
  
Seasons later, the young hare wandered away from the marching army, to work her way to Redwall Abbey. Our story begins with the young hare and her friends in Redwall Abbey, where a vermin hoarde approches...  
  
Chapter 1:   
  
A back door of Redwall Abbey slammed forcefully open, allowing a young hare and a young otter to sprint out of it as if their tails were on fire.  
  
The hare, Tyra Divlna Tossc, pulled the otter along with her, gritting her teeth. That pushy Tuthine and his sister Kessa! They were the Warrior of Redwall's son and daughter. So that, in their view, ment that they could push Tyra and Tulia, the otter, around. Of course, Tyra's temper had gotten the better of her. After yelling at the two she marched off, followed by Tulia. Of course Tuthine hadn't let it lie to rest at that.  
  
The two fugitives found the place where no one had ever found them, and old tree that had, many seasons ago, had been cut down. Green, leafy branches grew in a mesh from the stump, surrounding it like an army surrounds its target, obscuring all view from the outside.  
  
They pushed aside some of the branches where it grew next to the wall as the door swung open again, allowing the two mice, Tuthine and Kessa, to enter the orchard.  
  
They worked their way around the orchard, until they were so close to the tree that Tyra could have reached out and touched them. She felt a burning desire to trip them, but her and Tulia had already gotten reported to the Warrior and the Abbot for tripping Tuthine (who deserved it) and throwing hard pears at Kessa, who at that moment began to do her usual whining fit.  
  
"This is the place where those rats haunt! I don't want to be here, Tuthine!"  
  
"Shut up."  
  
"Why?! That's all you ever tell me! Why?! I hate it here, and honestly, I don't know why we bully those two! They're really okay, honestly."  
  
"Shut up."  
  
"No! I'm leaving."  
  
Tyra and Tulia had heard this before.  
  
"Kessa, shut up already."  
  
"NO! Why should I? You aren't my boss, I don't have to listen to you-"  
  
Tyra suddently stumbled back from her position at the tree to crash into Tulia. Tuthine looked up from what he was doing.  
  
"Kessa, did you here that?!"  
  
Thinking quickly, Tyra threw a very large stone in the other direction, it making a satisfiying noise against the other wall.  
  
"They're over there!" Kessa said, and the two sprinted off in the other direction.  
  
"Why in the world did ye do that, shipmate?" Tulia asked.  
  
"It was Kessa!" Tyra gasped, "She was staring right at us!  
  
************************************************************ Outside of Redwall, the Marlfox leaning against a tree stood watching as the dinner bell sounded and the two young ones dashed off yelling towards the Abbey.  
  
She had found the hare.  
  
It had been all too long since they had burned down that place know as Camp Tussock. And now she had found the cursed place known as Redwall Abbey.  
  
It would meet a similar fate.  
  
Many, many, many years ago she had been pushed off of the walls by a hefty otter. They had left her for dead.  
  
But now she was back, and revenge would taste sweet.  
  
She was Predak, last of the Marlfoxes.  
  
"Predak." A voice, rough with the hint of coursair language sounded behind her.  
  
"Yes, Eric." Her voice had grown into a voice that could control, something she never did with her idiot brother Mokkan around.  
  
A huge bilerat appeared, worn and rough with the scars of a million battles won. He controled the rats in Predak's army.  
  
"The plans are 'eady for ye."  
  
The Marlfox retreated into the woodlands, drab cloak swinging, with not a leaf to betray their presence.  
  
Redwall stood peaceful and quiet in the gathering dark, unknowing that they had been and gone. 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:  
  
Tyra and Tulia dashed into the Great Hall of Redwall Abbey before the bell stopped ringing. Almost immediatly after they ran in the Warrior of Redwall stepped in their path.  
  
The warrior's name was Breton, and he was tall for his species. Breton wore the sword of Martin across his back, and at that moment he was glaring at the two, who were staring at the floor as if to find inspiration there.  
  
"I heard that today you were attacking my two children in the orchard today..." Breton said.  
  
Tyra felt the burning desire to tell him what she thought of the two.  
  
"If you knew wot--" Tulia said.  
  
"Now," he said, continuing as if he hadn't heard Tulia,"You know what the standered punishment is for this, for both of you."  
  
Tyra looked at Tulia and rolled her eyes.  
  
"You know that the standered punishment is kitchen duty. And while you are helping Friar Ardennails you can't be snatching anything to eat out of there, Tyra."  
  
Finally they were allowed to sit down. They worked their way toward their usual table and sat down next to their friends Sassyfras the squirrel (Sassy), Muddbottom the shrew (Muddy), and Viktor Vilano the water vole (Viky).  
  
"Now what did you do?" Sassy asked, eyes shining with suspense.  
  
"Now, Sassy, it sounds bad, yiss yiss, I don't know if--"  
  
"Oh, shut up Vicky." Muddy said. "I think that you are being just a touch stupid, shipmate. If they don't want to tell us then they won't."  
  
"You tell them, m'gel." Tyra said. "I don't want to."  
  
************************************************************  
  
Predak stood with her officers. There were five of them - the rat Eric; the pine marten Ed; the ferret Scagg; the stoat Chopface; and the weasel Akhal. They were discussing the plans for the attack on Redwall.  
  
"It's quite simple," Ed said. "We'll drag the old catapults over to here, and batter down the walls, then rush in and take the abbey under dark of night, first scaling the building, and taking it from the top down. We'll probably hit the dormitories first, then be able to capture the abbey."  
  
"The walls, smart guy." Chopface said. "We'd be venreble to attack with them down."  
  
"There is an old quarry just down from here. After the abbey is defeated, then we would set them down to rebuild the walls. It's all here," he said, tapping the paper. "All we need."  
  
"Yes, Ed," Predak said. "Very simple, yet the abbeybeasts won't catch on until it's too late. We will start this in two days. Set the army to dragging the catapults over to here." 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:  
  
Tyra and Tulia unhappily reported to Friar Ardennais the next morning, who immediatly sent them to collect fruit from the orchard to use in a trifle.   
  
"To bad we got stuck doing this," Tulia commented as they strode across the lawn toward the orchard. "It's a beatiful day out."  
  
"Maybe. Oh no, not that blinkin' blighter. He's in the orchard to. This is not good," Tyra commented, watching as Tuthine wove his way in and out of the trees. "This isn't going to end up good."  
  
As she commented this, an arrow sped it's way over the wall, piercing the basket the two held between them. They looked at each other, confused, as a volley of arrows shot over the walls. Pulling the arrow out of the basket, they put it over them as a sheild, and dashed into the abbey yelling.  
  
"H'ATTACK! WE'RE UNDER A FLIPPEN' BALLY H'ATTACK!"  
  
They ran panting into the Great Hall. Breton ran forward.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Sound the alarm," Tulia said, not wanting Tyra to get all the credit for it. "We're being attacked!" She waved the arrow at him. "There has to be a million of these things out there!"  
  
A blast suddently racked the abbey.  
  
"What the-" Tyra stuttered.  
  
The rest of the abbey members who had been outside ran in.  
  
"They've got a catapult!" someone shouted.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Outside, Predak nodded as the catapult made another sound against the strong outer walls.  
  
"Chopface," she said.  
  
"Yes," the stoat replied.  
  
"Tell yours to slack off on the catapulting. We want the abbeybeasts to suffer..."  
  
************************************************************ br That night, Tyra tossed and turned restlessly. Some lurking, strange feeling told her that she was responsible for all of this. Suddently a tall, armored mouse appeared in her restless dreams. He was repeating a rhyme, a strange riddle that resounded in her head, echoing and mysterious:  
  
Start at the northern walls,  
  
Go to the river.  
  
Though the crossing doeth stir relentlessly,  
  
Armored wings do furl.  
  
Find the spouses, set in stone,  
  
Just beyond the water.  
  
Continue north, beyond the wood,  
  
Where evil things lurk.  
  
Do not send yourself to sleep,  
  
Be always on the watch.  
  
Travel through that lurking wood,  
  
Untill you reach the place,  
  
Of which the wood once smoked and burned,  
  
To leave you to your fate.  
  
There you must find what glitters so bright,  
  
Once under ashes but now under light.  
  
But once you find out,  
  
Then will you return,  
  
To your solace in,  
  
The rose-colored stones?  
  
Waking up, she realized what is was meaning, then, after writing the directions down, she filled a havversack from the kitchen with food and headed for the north wallgate.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Tulia was asleep when all this happened. At about the same time Tyra was in the kitchen, Martin appeared to Tulia. He said this:  
  
Your friend seeks  
  
Of her past  
  
Now she's leaving for a time.  
  
Go with her, Tulia,  
  
She needs someone,  
  
But go before,  
  
It grows too late.  
  
Tulia ran to the kitchen, but Tyra not being there she filled a haversack and dashed outside, instinct telling her to go to the north wallgate.  
  
************************************************************ Kessa was sound asleep, very tired from watching her mother pace the gatehouse that day. It was when Tulia was in the kitchen that Martin appeared to her. He said:  
  
The hare and the otter  
  
Approach the north gate  
  
Kessa, daughter of Breton,  
  
GO! Before it's too late!  
  
She awoke, then she, of coarse, headed to the kitchen, but the two weren't there, so she went to the north wallgate.  
  
************************************************************  
  
As Tyra was opening the gate, two things collided with her, knocking her and the things to the ground. 


	4. Chapter 4

Tyra sat up, just a little dazed from when something hit her a little too hard in the head. As the other two sat up, she finally was able to reconize them.  
  
"Tulia! Kessa! What are you two doing here?"  
  
The two looked sheepishly at each other, then gave the same reply.  
  
"Martin told us to come."  
  
Tyra sighed.  
  
"Well, iffn 'e did, we'd better git a move h'on. Oh, no, we fergot ta dig around in that old storage room. Okay, we need to go to the bell tower, but 'urry and be quiet!"  
  
************************************************************  
  
The ceasless noise of the catapult against the wall was very pleasing to Predak, even if it was keeping her up all night. She was sitting by the same tree she was earlier, trying to twist Ed's plan.   
  
"Yes, that would work, keep them up all day with weaponry attacks, then retreat at night and use the catapult. I want them to pay."  
  
************************************************************  
  
Rummaging around in the dusty room, the three finally found weapons that suit them. Tyra found a short sword that the blade was slightly shorter, by about an inch, that a sword. It was incased in a tarneshed sheath, with the belt wound around the handle, and she also found a sling and stone pouch.  
  
Tulia found a dagger and also grabbed a second sling.  
  
Kessa found a true sword, and inch longer than Tyra's, and got the other sling.  
  
Together they made their way out the north wallgate and ran up the path as the sun began to rise.  
  
************************************************************  
  
The three were, of course, found out when the Abbey began to bustle. It started with Tyra and Tulia's friends, who discovered them gone when they failed to meet them by the pond, and then Kessa's mother, when she went to rouse the two. This resulted in a huge search of the Abbey, resulting in nothing except for the note that Kessa left for her mother. Trying to comfort his wife while directing the search, Breton was frantic. But it was nothing compared to Muddy, Vicy and Sassy.  
  
The three were frantically searching everywhere for their friends, then literally ran into Tuthine in the orchard, knocking all of them to the ground. 


	5. Chapter 5

Tyra, Tulia and Kessa reached the river north of Redwall at noon, after a morning of relentless running. Finally they stopped, and rested on the bank. Almost immidiatly Tyra motioned for them to be silent.  
  
"Okay, chapesses, this is the part of the poem that applies to this little bit 'ere:  
  
Though the crossing doeth stir relentlessly,  
  
Armored wings do furl.  
  
So wot we're looking for is a ford, but why it stirs and what the armored wings are h'I have no bloomin' clue. So, I think that we found the ford, now wot are th--"  
  
"Tresspassers dare pass on my property! You shall die! You shall die!" A voice suddently rang out and the three lept up, clutching weapons.  
  
************************************************************  
  
After a hard morning of being bombarded with assorted weaponry, the Abbot had no choice but to call a parley. Gleefully Eric, Ed and Akhal stepped forward.  
  
"It is time to parley, is it not? Tired of being penned in?" Eric said.  
  
"No," Breton said scornfully.  
  
"Well, then, mouse, what are we standing around here talking for?" Ed said, in an equal tone.  
  
"What else, except to know what you are here for."  
  
"What is the obvious reason? Full takeover. What is the real reason? The hare, of course." Akhal said.  
  
"What hare, there is no hare here."  
  
His wife tapped him on the shoulder. "There's Tyra."  
  
"What they don't know won't hurt them or us." He whispered back.  
  
************************************************************  
  
When all of them got up, it looked as if Tuthine had been crying.   
  
"What's wrong?" Sassy asked.  
  
"Nothing." Tuthine replied. Then suddently,"I was heading to the armory in the bell tower to go out and find my sister. I know she went with Tyra and Tulia. Would you help me?"  
  
This direct ask for help from the bully was surprising to the three, who almost immideatly said "yes".  
  
After arming with assorted blades and long-distance weaponry, they let themselves out of the north wallgate, hot on the three's tail.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Tyra was the first to act when the huge bird landed. She swung her sling, shouting a cry that she didn't reconize at the time.  
  
"Eelulilaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"  
  
The stone hit the bird on the beak, and he blinked and stared at Tyra.  
  
"The earthcrawler rabbit will be the first to die! Run, ye foul vermin!"  
  
Tyra stepped back some, then waited as the bird came in for the kill, and swung her loaded swing forward as hard as she possibly could. It hit the bird in the head, stunning him.  
  
"Okay, now for the ford."  
  
Kessa rushed forward, but as she began to step into the ford a huge fish grabbed her and began to pull her under. 


	6. Chapters 6 and 7

Chapter 6:  
  
Tyra lept forward and grabbed the mouse, and tried to pull her back onto the shore. The ship-long pike, though, had a good latch on Kessa. Tulia, knowing that her friends were lost if she didn't help, grabbed a stick as long as herself, and swung it hard at the pike. It hit the pike square on the head, and it let go of Kessa, surprised. It then latched onto the stick, which Tulia had promply dropped after hitting it. Slowly, it slid back into the water.  
  
"Well," Kessa said. "That's a life lesson - Look before you step into a ford."  
  
"Right, Kessa, but now you've made our crossing a lot more difficult," Tulia said, watching the pike crowding around the bank, waiting for another creature to unwittingly place a paw in their domain.  
  
************************************************************  
  
The four trackers, Sassy, Muddy, Vicy and Tuthine, trotted down the path, watching the path above. They suddently heard the shouting up ahead, and began running towards the ford.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Trying to figure out how to cross the ford, Tyra stared downriver. She saw a large tree happening to float down towards the pike (what luck...lol).  
  
"'Ey, I got a good idea, everyone. Help me pull that log up 'ere."  
  
After completing that task, they pilied onto the log, and Tyra drew her sword. She waved it at the pike.  
  
"No, iffn any one o' you feels pike enough to attack us, you're gonna get your 'ead chopped off!  
  
The trip, actually, was uneventful. Tyra and Tulia helped Kessa back onto the trail and they soon dissappeared into the woods.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Tuthine, Sassy and co. arrived at the ford as the pike were beginning to disperse. Luckly, having Muddy the shrew in their group, they crossed the river on a shabby raft. Following the trail of the other three, they did not notice the peering eyes of a rat tracking group that had followed them from the Abbey on the other side of the river.  
  
************************************************************  
  
" What's the next clue?" Tulia asked.   
  
"Find the spouses, set in stone,  
  
Just beyond the water.  
  
Continue north beyond the woods. I think that's it." Tyra said.  
  
"Um, Tyra," Kessa whispered, "There's someone following."  
  
"Don't look like you know they're there. We'll find out who or wot they are soon enough."  
  
Chapter 7:  
  
Breton spent a sleepless night in the abbey. After the truce was over he learned that his son had also dissappeared. He paced the gatehouse, his wife watching him.  
  
"Don't worry," she said. "They're probably only around the abbey somewhere."  
  
"No, they're not, I can tell," Breton said. "They're outside the abbey. If they can get away from here they might actually be safer then we are."  
  
As dusk fell the relentless pounding of the catapult began again.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Predak stood with Eric and Ed. She was not too happy with the way the truce had turned out. She was about to say something else when Akhal dashed up.  
  
"Predak," he gasped, out of breath. "I sent a party out after four of the young abbey members that left through the north wall-gate! They were heading north, and I think that they may have been following three others."  
  
"Good. If we can catch them... I must be the only one of you blockheads that knows what the young of the abbey mean to them. If you catch them - all seven of them - then I want them at my feet as soon as you get back here. Remember that, Akhal. When your patrol comes in, all seven of them will come strait to me. If they don't have all seven, send them - captives and all - back out to catch the last ones."  
  
************************************************************  
  
Tyra and her friends were camped in front of the legendary otter and his wife. Tulia got up and ran her hand over the carved features.  
  
"It is amazing to think that somebeast carved this many seasons ago."  
  
"It is, isn't it. Now, who's going to take first watch?" She looked around at Tulia and Kessa, who had immediatly thrown themselves down on the ground, feinting sleep.  
  
As Tyra watched the flame embers dance over the features of the stone, she began to recall a faint memory of something that she couldn't remember.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Sassy stopped the three others (Muddy, Tuthine and Vicy) when she saw the flames.  
  
"I think that we may have caught up to them."  
  
"Let's check it out."  
  
They approached the flames cautiously, and then Muddy stepped on a stick.  
  
************************************************************  
  
CRACK!  
  
The noise of the stick breaking woke up Tulia and Kessa, and Tyra doused the flames.  
  
"Who's there?!" She said.   
  
"Only us." A voice replied, then Muddy, Vicy, Sassy and Tuthine entered the small clearing.  
  
"Wot are ye doin' 'ere?" Tulia demanded.  
  
"Following you, wot else?" Muddy said.  
  
"Shush!" Tyra exclamed. "Sommat else followed ye. Vermin Patrol! We have ta get outta 'ere! Run into the forest! Run until ye reach the outskirts of the woods!  
  
As they dashed out the patrol from the Abbey burst into the small clearing 


	7. Chapter 8

Chapter 8  
  
All of them had been running for a long time, until they reached the whispering dunes at the edge of the woods, where the wind blows through the sands, blowing and whispering, to the shores of the sea, at the mouth of the Mossflower river. Tyra, Tuthine, Kessa, Tulia, Sassy, Muddy and Vicy all collapsed at the edge of the sea, after three long days of dodging seabirds and toads. Then, out of the night, a huge shadow loomed over the tidline, causing all of them to leap up and run back as the sound of something hitting the shoreline sounded behind them.  
  
************************************************************  
  
The vermin patrol carried on headlessly, crashing over dunes and sand. They ran onward, not wanting to return empty-pawed to Predak and her troops.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Ubel Bicharia, cap'n of the ship Bloodfarl, lept to the sand. He joined his crew chasing the young ones, the screaming and shouting crew that ran relentlessly towards the seven that pounded the sand ahead of them.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Tyra knew that it would be immpossible to outrun the Searats, none of them having the stamina or speed to run across the sands. Then, looming out of the shadows in front of them, was the vermin patrol.   
  
"Everyone! Run to the left!" she shouted, desprite to get her friends out of what she had gotten them into.  
  
They ran to the left, being closely followed by the searats who were hot on their trail. The patrol just ran in circles, wondering where the shout had come from.  
  
************************************************************  
  
All of the young ones had thought that they had escaped the searats, untill they were cut off by a few searats on all sides, soon supported by their crewmates. Tyra and her friends bunched together in a tight knot, no one knowing what would come.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Breton was trying to get the moles to band together to help them get rid of the dangerouse catapult. The moles were not cooperative, but had their own plan.  
  
"Burr, zurr Breton," Foremole said. "We diggum tunnel to da catathing and slice throw it wid yer zword, zurr, and fer dat we'll need yer cooperation."  
  
In the end, Breton gave in. Their plan was much better than his was, anyway. They left Cavern Hole to begin their plan.  
  
************************************************************  
  
It was not Tyra who began the fighting between they and the searats, but the terrible duo Muddy and Vicy. Now, after a few minutes, all but Tuthine, Tyra and Tulia were standing, and the searats had Kessa and the terrible duo in a deathlock, scimitars and knives ready to kill if the three did not give in immidiatly. 


	8. Chapters 9 and 10

Chapter 9  
  
Breton and the moles headed out to the wall that the two catapults mainly focased on. He watched the moles start to dig the tunnel, and he played his part of the plan in his mind. Suddently, Martin the Warrior strolled into his daydreams.  
  
Worry not for your kin  
  
For they are in good hands  
  
Breton, faithful one  
  
Watch o'er my Redwall.  
  
Breton blinked and Martin was gone. The moles beckoned him to the tunnel. It was time for the plan to go into action.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Sassy, one of the four that was standing in the last chapter (that I forgot to mention) had collapsed from fatuge. Tuthine had thrown down his weapons for his sister Kessa. Tyra and Tulia remained surrounded by the searats, clenching weaponry.  
  
"Give in, yous two," a rat that the other searats called Flatnose said, "give in unless you want those friends o' yourn killed."  
  
"Tulia," Tyra said quietly, "give in. We have to for our friends' sakes."  
  
"No," she quietly said back, "we don't. We can fight them and go down fighting. It would be better for us if we did, instead of have to--"  
  
As Tulia said this, a rat behind them cracked a spear over Tyra's head, breaking the spear and causing Tyra to collapse in an unconsious heap. In shock, Tulia dropped her weapons.  
  
Howling with the joy of the catch, the rats dragged the seven to the Bloodfarl.  
  
*********************************************************** *  
  
Predak called Akhal for a conference, and conferences with Predak were not pleasent if she was in a bad mood.  
  
"Well, where is your patrol now? They should be back with those seven in chains!"  
  
"Predak," Akhal threw a salute. "I sent some of my trackers out. They saw that the hare's friends' tracks mixed in a clearing beside two stone statues of two otters. They dashed off into the forest.  
  
"A split second later, my patrol broke into the clearing, then crashed off, hot on the trail.  
  
"Later, the trackers saw the patrol's tracks flurry, just beyond the Whispering Dunes. A pack of searats seemed to have later captured the seven, but the ship is gone. That is all we know at the time."   
  
Chapter 10  
  
The rat standing beside the catapult never knew what was happening.  
  
He stood with one hand on the lever, ready to relese the stone. Suddently, Martin's Sword broke through the ground and sliced the lever strait off of the catapult and also gouging deep into the wood that was essential to the catapult's work. The rat screamed and lept back quickly, just avoiding his paw being sliced off.  
  
Then, it was over.  
  
************************************************************  
  
"WHAT?! THE TWO CATAPULTS RENDERED USELESS BY A SWORD!!"  
  
"Ummmmmmm, yes, Predak," Ed said, staring at the ground as the Marlfox paced in front of him.  
  
"We didn't know that the abbeybeasts would dare make a sneak attack against us, an' it happened so fast that two of ours almost had their paws sliced strait off. No real sword could have done all of that."  
  
"REAL SWORD, OF COURSE IT'S A REAL SWORD YOU IDIOT! AND SURPRISE OR NOT YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN PREPARED FOR ALL OF THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
"We will me ready next time, take my affidavit for it!"  
  
************************************************************  
  
Very slowly the world stopped spinning. Groggily Tyra shook her head and opened her eyes. Standing before her and her friends was the searat cap'n Ubel Bicharia. He had a huge, sickled-scimitar at his side, and he seemed veeeeeeeeeeeery frightening from the seven's position on the deck. It was impossible to not notice the shaking of the others next to her.  
  
Not losing any courage, Tyra said, "Wot do ye want, rat." The others looked at her in surprise and amazement.  
  
"Now that you mention it, I might as well tell you." He looked around at them all, most likely to see their expressions. Tyra could tell that she was frowning.  
  
"You have been luckily (cough) selected to be an oarslave on me ship."  
  
Lovely words and a diplomatic way of talking could not fool Tyra and her friends. Vicy and Muddy had their eyes closed and were bleached white. Tulia was biting her lip to not make one of the smart replies that she was famous for. Tuthine and Kessa were shaking like seeds in the wind. Tyra seemed to be the only one who was white and still had her voice.  
  
"Luckily selected? How in Pete's name can ye be luckily selected to be any type of slave?"  
  
"That," he said, frowning, "Is for me to know and you to find out. I am done here, mates, and you know how to take care of them."  
  
Once again, they were pulled off by the searats. 


	9. Chapter 11

The vermin patrol was dodging highly aggressive toads. They tripped over dunes and ran slap bang into each other.   
  
"Well," one of the weasels said when they got a chance to rest, "We can't return to Predak empty-handed, unless you want to be dead!"  
  
"We can't stay here, either!" The leader said, "Predak wouldn't be any happier wid us iffn we stayed out 'ere, she'd think we deserted! We 'ave ta go back!"  
  
"Would she be any happier wid us iffn we returned empty-pawed?"  
  
"Fine! We'll stay out 'ere a season. Then we go back, seven captives or not!"  
  
************************************************************  
  
Tyra was chained in the front of the ship next to a reddish wildcat. The two pulled the 40-pound oar, and Tyra listened to what the wildcat remembered of her childhood.  
  
"I am Katzey 'SeaQueen' Gingivere. My father used to be cap'n of this ship when she 'twas named the SeaQueen. When I was about five seasons old, this searat gang invaded our ship. They killed my father, along with Boulonnais the mole's, as they stood outside the barricaded cabin where me, Boulonnais and our mothers were. The searats burned down the cabin, killing our mothers, and pulled us out. They changed my father's pride and joy, this ship, into the Bloodfarl. Then they rebuilt the cabin, go a few more oarslaves, and now you see a cap'n's daughter pulling an oar, since before she was six seasons old.  
  
************************************************************  
  
"Ak hal, has there been no sign of your patrol yet?"  
  
"No, Predak none." Akhal said, breathig a sigh of relif as she moved on to Eric.  
  
"Is there any progress on the catapult?"  
  
"We're still looking for wood."  
  
"Well hurry up, idiot, and find some! We don't have fifty seasons!"  
  
Eric saluted and hurried off. 


	10. Chapter 12

AKA Chapter 2 of Book 2.   
  
Breton stood on the east wall, watching the commotion in the vermin ranks, caused by what seemed to be a bilgerat and a weasel, some types of officers. Both of them dashed about, shouting orders.  
  
"You there!" the bilgerat yelled, "Find some wood fer a new catapult! You, weasel there, 'elp 'im!"  
  
"You ain't me cap'n!" the weasel shouted back.  
  
Just then the weasel also shouting orders slipped up and clipped the unfortunate on the ear.  
  
"An' unless ye want ta be answer'n ta Predak ye 'ad best list ta Eric dere. Now 'elp dat rat!"  
  
The weasel that had been sent scurried off muttering and rubbing his ear, as Breton stood watching, ever watching, over his beloved abbey.  
  
************************************************************  
  
It had been about five days since Tyra and her friends had been captured. Katzey and Tyra rarely had a chance to talk and plan an escape, as Flatnose seemed to keep his watchful eye over the pair.  
  
"Does it seem like Flatnose hangs around here a lot?" Katzey asked at one time when they had a chance to talk.  
  
"Kind of," Tyra replied, glaring strait forward. "I don't think he feels too kindly toward us."  
  
"What if--"  
  
"Hush! He's coming!"  
  
Flatnose stepped down from the deck, his eyes on the two.  
  
He had seen them talking.  
  
He had them now.  
  
************************************************************  
  
"Oh, no." Tulia said quietly to her oarpartner, who happened to be big-shot Tuthine. "Flatnose looks ready to kill."  
  
"Tyra knows it. She looks like she's going to gut the idiot and throw him overboard if he says anything to her."  
  
"Steel yourself, Tuthine. I think that it's time to get out of these chains."  
  
************************************************************  
  
Kessa and her oarpartner, the mole called Boulonnais, stared at the searat when he walked past him.  
  
"I don't like this," she whispered.  
  
"No, mizz Kezza, oi don't loike it none niether."  
  
"What do you think will happen?"  
  
"After wot oi knows 'bout Katzey, an' wot you've tol' me 'bout Tyra, oi think dat this moight be de toime o' rekonin' fer Flatynose, burr aye, oi do 'ope dose two give 'em billy ho!"  
  
************************************************************  
  
Vicy and Muddy, both at the same oar, glared at the searat's back when he walked past them.  
  
"Everybeast on the ship 'as gone silent all o' the sudden, don't you agree Muddy, yiss yiss?"  
  
"I think so." the shrew replied."I think Tyra an' dat wildcat seem kinda tense. Sommat's goin' ta 'appen. Also, dat searat's wearin' Tyra's blade. She told me when we were runnin' dat if any rat took that sword from 'er, they'd die when she 'ad it back. I think chaos is going to 'appen soon."  
  
************************************************************  
  
Sassy and her oarpartner, a dog named Hone, stared after the searat.  
  
"This is not goin' ta be good."  
  
"I know Hone. I think someone's goin' ta die."  
  
"I think that Flatnose is goin' ta get wot's comin' fer 'im. It's been waitin' on 'is doorstep fer five days."  
  
************************************************************  
  
Tyra listened to the pawsteps behind her, gritting her teeth, the only one on that ship who knew what would happen. 


	11. Chapter 13

Predak stood in front of Eric, who was staring at the ground as he gave his report on the catapult.  
  
"Okay, let me get this strait," Predak said, sighing. "There is no wood to make a good catapult, and there is no sign of any returning patrols."  
  
"No, there isn't, but there just isn't any wood around her--"  
  
"Then, idiot, send them out further! Use your brain, if you have one!"  
  
Eric saluted and stumbled off.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Flatnose finally reached the front of the ship, while Tyra and Katzey stared forward at the wall.  
  
"There isn't supposed to be any talking around 'ere, youse twos."  
  
Suddently the rat found himself staring into Tyra's face-and in it he saw the only resistance that he ever had.  
  
"Rat," Tyra said angrly, "I have never taken orders off a flippen' vermin, an' I am not starting now. Especially if that stupid vermin is tellin' me who I can talk to or when."  
  
"You'll 'ave ta get used ta it, 'are, because--"  
  
But because why no one ever found out, for at that exact moment Tulia leaned over and with a spare block of driftwood she struck out heedlessly at Flatnose, hitting him hard on the back. He turned quickly, unwrapping the whip he had curled around his paw.  
  
"Just fer that, otter, you're gettin' punished afore dis 'are does!" He swung the whip up high, but it never came down.  
  
In turning the rat had let Tyra grab her blade from the back of his belt. After freeing herself she lept forward and caught the whip, then used her sword to cut it off.  
  
Flatnose just stared dumbly at the cut whip, before turning to Tyra, who just pushed him against the wall and placed her sword at his throat.  
  
All of the oarslaves stared in shock at the pair, now up against the wall of the ship.   
  
"Now, rat, throw your key ta me friend Katzey dere. Unless..."  
  
Flatnose threw the key to Katzey, who unlocked the others and herself, and all of the oarslaves ran up to the deck to take care of those on deck.  
  
Suddently the Bloodfarl heaved, and Tyra stumbled back and fell onto one of the now-empty oarslave benches. Flatnose dashed forward, and drew his sword. He swung it down.  
  
Tyra rolled off of the bench, the sword catching her ear by an inch. She lept up and swung her sword at the rat, who pulled his out of the bench in the nick of time and met Tyra's sword in a loud clash.   
  
Flatnose spun around and ran to the ladder that lead to the deck. He climed up it, closely followed by Tyra.   
  
They met back on deck, Tyra swinging her sword and catching the rat on his chest, causing only a shallow gash. He met her thrust and she lept back.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Katzey had found Cap'n Bicharia.  
  
He had been trying to run off of the ship, to one of the small escape boats he had tied to the side. Heedlessly he ran, trying to escape the battle raging on deck. But suddently he turned, strait into Katzey. He had no time to draw his sword before she stepped back and stabbed forward, taking him through the stomach. The last thing he ever heard were her words.  
  
"This is for my mother and father!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
**************************************************** ********  
  
By the time he knew that (the former) Cap'n Bicharia had fallen, Flatnose stood with half of one of his paws shorn off, and Tyra was bleeding freely from her shoulder. Finally, after he noticed that time stood still as all fighting stopped, dashed forward for the boat that Bicharia had been heading for. The rest of the crew joined him. He shouted back to Tyra "I will have my revenge, hare! Do not sleep easy at night!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
As time began to move again, Tyra staggered back against one of the masts, holding her shoulder. Tulia, Katzey and the other Redwallers moved through the remaining oarslaves, taking stock of injuries and pushing vermin overboard.  
  
"Well," Tyra muttered as Katzey walked by. "We're free now, now wot are we goin' ta do."  
  
************************************************************ 


	12. Chapter 14

The rat and the weasel sent to gather wood were having a hard time of it. Even though they had been sent farther out to find wood, there was none to be found. Until thery reached a small grove of very large trees.  
  
"'Ey, Terry," The weasel called, "Think there would be any in dere?"  
  
"Maybe," Terry said, "It's a forest, you idjit. Of course there's wood in there. Come on Lenny, we might be able to find some wood to please Predak, picky ole thing."  
  
"Fully agree. Now come on!"  
  
Chattering, the two walked into the woods, where bright eyes gleamed at them from out of the bushes, and creatures waited in the treetops for their chance to attack.  
  
************************************************************  
  
The seas were calm, and the Bloodfarl stood silent, the only sounds the moan of the injured along with the splash of searat bodies hitting the water, and water being hauled up to wash the decks.   
  
Tyra, her left arm now in a sling, watched in mild amusement at her friend Katzey dashing around, dodging buckets and the injured, trying to restore peace and get some work going. Finally she gave up and headed over to Tyra.  
  
"Look, Tyra," she said, "For a cap'n's daughter I sure am a failure. Do you think you might help me here? These poor beasts have probably never been out of their chains for as long as they can remember, so it is a time of rejoicing, but we need to get work done--"  
  
"Okay already! Mates, we're literally on the same boat 'ere, so afore we do any rejoicing we must get some stuff goin' 'round 'ere. Kessa, Boulonnais, you two check out the galley. Sassy and Vicy, you two muster up some shipwork 'ere. Tulia, Muddy, you two steer us for right now, get us as close to shore as you can. Katzey, you and I'll deal wid dat wretched place down below."   
  
************************************************************  
  
Ten days passed since anyone had seen or heard of Lenny or Terry. Eric sent out some of his best trackers, but to no avail.   
  
"Well?" Eric asked when they returned.  
  
"Er-We tracked 'em to a forest but it was filled o' skeletons hangin' offa da trees an' odder creepy dings so we didn't go na fuvver. We dinks de Painted Ones gots 'em!"  
  
"Oh, the Painted Ones is it now. Well, last season when I sent you bumblers after two beasts it was the Flitcheye."  
  
"Yeah, cap'n but dis is twrue to! Look! Dere dey are!"  
  
Terry and Lenny trotted into camp, pulling a load of wood behind them, and talking consistantly.  
  
"It's a surprise you didn't hear them." Eric mumbled as he dashed off to find Predak. 


	13. Chapters 15 and 16

Tyra and Katzey had done their job well. All of the chains had been thrown overboard. Except for a pair.  
  
Taking the chains that once held them to the oar, Tyra and Katzey ceremonially placed the chains of the cabin door, to remind them all that the seas must be rid of all of these chains, and the searats must go with them.  
  
They spent a while rejoicing and looking for the River Moss. They passed Salamandastron before they found it. Of course the former oarslaves were overjoyed-all but the Redwallers, Katzey, Hone and Boulonnais came from a village near the mouth. So Tyra decided to bend in and picked up the fiddle she had somehow known how to play, and Katzey sang an old riddle-song taught to her by her father.  
  
While mortals sleep I speak,  
  
Of secrets yet untold,  
  
Rocks don't stop to stem my way,  
  
And plants are unable to control,  
  
I have lived through many days,  
  
Unwounded and unaged,  
  
The night grows dark around me  
  
But yet I speed away,  
  
Night creatures howl around me,  
  
The trees blow,  
  
The wind sighs,  
  
But yet I am unnerved,  
  
Laughing and talking as I find my way to where I do go!  
  
"Well, Katzey, what is it?" one of the oarslaves asked after Tyra stopped playing and Katzey finished the song.  
  
"Yeah, that's wot I'm wonderin'" Tulia said.  
  
"You, of all beasts, should know wot it is, Tulia,"Tyra replied, rubbing her sore paw and arm. "It's a river."  
  
"Ohhhhhh." Everyone but Tyra and Katzey sighed.  
  
Finally, the oarslaves and their families waved good-bye and the former Bloodfarl, now the SeaQueen, returned to the ford and now the ten companions found the otter and his wife to continue their journey.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Roughly a season had passed, so the patrol returned to Predak, where they were greeted with anger at returning empty-handed. Later Predak and Eric were talking away from the camp, out of anybeast's earshot.  
  
"Eric," she said,"Have you ever heard of the phrase, 'If you want something done, you must do it yourself'?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Well, I am going to do just that. I am leaving you and Ed in charge, I can trust you two. Your orders are to build a new catapult, and keep attacking the abbey. DO NOT let them know that I am not here anymore. Tell Akhal to have half of his troops ready to march. We are going to find seven little abbeybeasts. We leave tommorrow."  
  
************************************************************   
  
The ten had run into the Flitcheye.  
  
Tyra and Tulia, in an amazing stand, had rescued the others from the Flitcheye, and took the leader at the same time. Right now he was in a very tricky situation. Tyra held her sword to his neck, and all of the others had their blades drawn. They were walking along the path backwards, facing the body of the Flitcheye.  
  
"Nary a move!" Hone called.  
  
"Unless ye want a Flitcheye shishcabob!"Kessa shouted.  
  
"Or maybe a Flitcheye cassarole!" Katzey yelled.  
  
"Or a nice, juicy Flitcheye-on-a-stick." Tuthine said.  
  
"Noa! Norra Flitcheye shiscabob! Norra Flitcheye-ona-stick! Norra Flitcheye cassarole!" The massed Flitchey shouted.  
  
"Hate ta spoil ye fun, but we've reached the extent of their territory." Tyra let the leader loose and shouted at the Flitcheye: "Now, iffn any o' ye feels Fisheye, or wotever, enought ta come after us, we'll be dinein' on Fisheye Pudden, though it twould totally destroy the good cookin'!"  
  
************************************************************ Akhal stopped in front of his troops the next day.  
  
"Okay, mates, since yer friends didn't bring back the hare an' 'er friends, then yer all goin' out huntin'."  
  
"Not this!" One weasel moaned.  
  
"Are ye goin' ta protest?"  
  
Frightened the weasel shook his head and stepped back into rank.  
  
Predak strode out of her tent and motioned for the troop to follow.  
  
"We leave now."  
  
Chapter 16  
  
"Hah! You should have seen those looks when you said 'Fisheye Pudden'!" Hone said, laughing.  
  
"Well, it was quite hard to miss." Tyra said.  
  
"Oh, yeah. You were the one who said that."  
  
Katzey, in the front, threw out her paw to stop them.  
  
"Something bad has happened here."  
  
In front of them lay the ruins of Camp Tussock.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Predak was the only one of the troop, probably being the leader, to make it through Flitcheye country unharmed. She stood, amused, and watched the rest of the patrol flop around on the grass.  
  
"Well, that was a nice little trek. Up, you idiots, get up!"  
  
All of the weasels lying on the ground lept up and saluted. Then, a loud shout and a laugh rang out from up ahead.  
  
"It's them!" One of the weasels shouted.  
  
"Noo, reeeally, you idiot," Predak said. "Why don't you announce it to the whole woodlands? No, I'm not going to kill you, I'm going to need you if they try to fight back. I'm not taking any chances while they have a hare with them. Now run, you idiots, don't stand there! Go catch them, ALIVE nonetheless, if that is too much to ask."  
  
The troop thundered off in the direction of the shout.   
  
************************************************************  
  
The Abbot and Breton, had gotten the same info from each of the 5 parleys they had called. So, now they were calling anyone to steo forward with the right information: Why did the leader want Tyra so badly?  
  
"But why?" the Abbot asked the Redwallers, "Why is it so evident that they want Tyra? Is it because she's one of our young ones? But how would they know of her?"  
  
"I think I know," a quiet voice said from the back. Up stepped Breton's wife, named Sorraia. "I found this around her bed in the dorm while dusting. It is the medal we found when we found her at our gate many seasons ago." She held up a dull medal with Tyra's name inscribed on the front. "I decided to polish it up, as it never had one, she kept it with her night and day. Once I did, I found that her name is not as we thought. It is really 'Tyra Divinia Tussock'. And on the back of this certain medal, it is the Tussock family tree. She is a direct decendent of Tammo and Pasque Tussock. I don't know if that helps at all, but it may." She sat back down.  
  
"Of COURSE!" The normally calm Abbot slammed his paw down on the table. Everybeast was shocked to see a burning hate in his eyes as he recalled this memory.  
  
"Six seasons before we found Tyra at our gates, a wandering Sparra told me the following story, translated as well as I can:  
  
All I could see was the building once known as Camp Tussock on flame. The vermin army threw fire on it, mercilessly, and the screaming of the ones inside the building wrenched my heart, though I could do nothing to prevent this evil deed. Then, near the end of the burning, a hare dashed out of the back, sobbing and holding a harebabe in her paws. She was intercepted by a gray fox in a drab cloak, no doubt a Marlfox. She pinned something onto this harebabe's tunic, then positioned herself between the Marlfox and her daughter, and drew her sword, and screamed out 'Eeluliaa'. The two fought, and it was a long, hard battle, but finally the hare was slain and her body threw back in the flames. The harebabe had disappeared. Later, once the flames were doused, the harebabe was found next to her mother's charred remains, still alive. What happened next, I do not know, for I knew what happened to the captured ones of this army, and flew off.  
  
I would bet that that very same hare found her way here to Redwall six seasons later. It all makes sense now. They're the army, and they want her back." 


	14. Chapters 17 and 18

"I know this place," Tyra whispered. She stepped forward and carefully pulled a small, glittering thing out of the pile of ashes.  
  
But as she was turning around to face the others and show them what she had found, the vermin patrol burst into the clearing.  
  
"Draw!" she shouted, and they formed a tight circle, facing outwards.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Predak, being a good cowardly leader, leaned on her drawn sword at the edge of the clearing. She watched the vermin encircle the ten, and the sunlight glinting off of weaponry. She motioned for Akhal to come forward.  
  
"There are more than we rekoned."  
  
"Aye, but six are from the abbey, three I have not seen, and the other is the hare."  
  
"That is all we need."  
  
"We can take them, have no fear. Being young, and most Redwallers, they must not have much training in weaponry."  
  
"I will trust you on this."  
  
Akhal saluted and ran off.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Tyra clenched the hilt of her sword. It didn't seem good. But why would have such a large patrol be sent after them? They weren't that important...  
  
"Tulia," Tyra whispered, only loud enough for her to hear. "One of us, either you or I, must escape and find help. It should be you. I may be able to hold them off long enough, for maybe the others to escape as well, but you need to find help if that doesn't work."  
  
"No, you must go. You are the best runner, you can muster up more help than I. You need to go-I feel it."  
  
"No--"  
  
"No nothing, Tyra. YOU MUST GO! That is final. I shall spread the word. Go whenever ye wants. And good luck."  
  
A weasel, no doubt a major officer, strode forward.  
  
"Surrender," he said in a monotonous voice, "Unless you want to meet the gates of the dark forest today!"  
  
"Never," Kessa said in an equally monotonous voice.  
  
"Eeluliaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"  
  
Taking everybeast by surprise, Tyra burst forward and out of the surrounding weasels, and ran for the edge of the clearing. Still unwilling to leave her friends, she turned when she was on the brink of exiting the clearing. She still had the small box she had found.  
  
"TYRA! GET OUT OF HERE!"   
  
"If you want me, weasels, come get me!!!!!!" Tyra yelled, and disappeared into the woods.  
  
It didn't take long before her friends were taken, but nobeast could find any trace of the hare.  
  
Chapter 18  
  
Tyra ran blindly on, oblivious of direction and obsticales. Crashing through a patch of hepatica flowers, she fell into the clearing beyond.  
  
In this clearing, there was a small barn, placed on a slight rise. It seemed to be somewhat two stories, one buried in the ground, the door only visible through a dip in the hill. Tyra, now gasping for breath, opened the door that was on the left side of the hill, above it, the door plainly visible, not hidden like the lower enterance.  
  
Sunlight filtered in from the wide open door. Haybales were stacked, one on top of the other, along the walls. Some of the haybales formed stairs, stairs that only the most expereinced could scale. Along one wall, a wide varity of weapons hung, dusty and dull from years of uselessness. Tyra opened the door a small bit more. More sunlight streamed in, illuminating the floor of the building.   
  
"Close that door, young Tussock! The sunlight is too bright fer me old eyes!"  
  
Surprised, Tyra let the door fall shut with a loud bang, and everything went black.  
  
"Not that much, young Tussock, we need to see!"  
  
Something, or someone, strode over and opened the door enough to see most of the building.  
  
"Now, my young Tussock, move into the light here, so I can see you properly. By the fur! It's been ages since I've seen you!"  
  
Tyra sheathed the sword she had drawn when she had shut the door.  
  
"Maybe, sah, it would be easier if we both stepped in at one time."  
  
"Well, that's a sensible idea, young Tussock. All proper, I guess. Okay, on the count of three, young Tussock. I take it you know how to count? Okay, anyway; one, two-two and a half-three!"  
  
Tyra stepped forward into the shaft of light, as did the voice.   
  
The voice turned out to be an old wildcat, grizzeled with age. His fur was silvery, and he wore a green tunic, covered with hay. Thrust through his belt was a short dagger, the only polished weapon in the placee, you could safely guess.  
  
"Welcome, young Tussock, to the Kazlaham, the last trustworthy house on the edge of the wilderness of the nortlands!" He said. "Now, update me on how things have been going since Predak burned Camp Tussock."  
  
"Um, with all due respect," Tyra said shakily, "I have no idea who you are, nonetheless wot you're talkin' 'bout, sah."  
  
"Of course. I am Katze Gingivere, Honored Weapons Master of the Former Camp Tussock."  
  
************************************************************  
  
"Tulia, what are we going to do? This isn't right-"  
  
"I know, Kessa, it's not. Predak is a Marlfox. Wot did you expect, a warm welcome?" the otter said.  
  
It was later that day. The weasels had been forced to make camp, as an oncoming storm threatened. The nine had been chained by one long running-chain Predak had been carrying around with her, run through a manacle on their forepaws. The chain was then locked around a nearby tree, and three guards and been stationed at the loose end. One of them looked towards the otter and the mouse with distaste, then returned his gaze to the small fire he and his two companions had scrounged up and built a small tent over.  
  
"Why that little weasel! If I had-"  
  
"Hone, watch it there. If it's up to us, we're not watching any of us getting killed for speaking wrongly, and that is exactly what will happen if they hear you speaking like that." Katzey said quite plainly, and everybeast fell silent.  
  
All of them looked to Tulia and Katzey for guidence now, for they were at a loss themselves. Of course, if Tyra had been here, it would have been she they had looked to, but obviously she wasn't.  
  
Tulia and Katzey, as the others drifted off to sleep, caught each other's eye. In that one glance, they said the one thing they would never out loud.  
  
We will never get out of here.  
  
But that night, Martin the Warrior appeared to Katzey, and he said:  
  
Fear not for those you have,  
  
Now under your care,  
  
You and Tussock soon will be reunited  
  
But not in the way you plan.  
  
In the morning, she could not remember that dream at all. 


	15. Chapters 19 and 20

"Whould you like to tell me what has been going on since Camp Tussock was burned?"Katze said again.  
  
"Um, sah, I still don't know wot you're talking about."  
  
"You don't remember? Well, o' course you probably don't."  
  
"No, sah, I don't. And to my knowledge, which probably isn't much, I'm not related to the Tussocks."  
  
"First of all, young Tussock, you don't have to call me "sah". Second, you are related to the Tussocks, young Tussock, I've never gotten anybeast mixed up with another, living or dead. You are Tyra Divinia Tussock, one of the three-Nicole Aphic, myself, and you-who survived the burning of Camp Tussock by Predak."  
  
************************************************************  
  
Predak's troops were uneasy. It had been only a day since they had captured the nine, and nothing had happened otherwise. Finally, the signal they had been waiting for came in a shout for Akhal.  
  
"AKHAL! Get over here NOW!"  
  
He dashed heedlessly through the camp, to arrive panting in front of Predak.  
  
"Now," she said,"You, and yes, you, are going to take half-yes half, that's eighty-of the troop you have with you to find the hare."  
  
"Me?" he asked.  
  
"Yes, you, you dunderhead! I want that hare at my feet in no more than seven days. Tommorrow would be perfect. Now, get out of here!"  
  
Akhal turned and nodded.  
  
"Oh, and ALIVE if that's possible."  
  
Akhal left.  
  
************************************************************  
  
A stunned silence reined throughout Cavern Hole. Everybeast had known the fate Camp Tussock had met, but to find a sole survivor at their doorstep, and not know, had been a little too much. Breton was the first to speak.  
  
"Well," he said,"That's a change of events, isn't it? Now we know."  
  
"Yes we do. So now we also know where they all went," someone said, "They all went with her. It's obvious."  
  
"So the leader, this Marlfox, must be the one who is leading the horde outside our walls," another said.  
  
"Of course," the abbot said, "Now we need to do something about the vermin outside."  
  
Chapter 20  
  
Tyra was astounded by this news.  
  
"But sa-um- I still don't know what you're talking about..."  
  
"Again, you must be corrected, young Tussock, my name is not 'um', call me Katze, it doesn't matter to one as old as I.  
  
And please don't tell me you have as bad a memory as I do."  
  
"I'll call you Katze, sah," Tyra said, "If you stop calling me young Tussock, and just call me Tyra..."  
  
Katze nodded to the box that Tyra had dropped in surprise.  
  
"That might help you understand."  
  
Mystified, Tyra picked up the box and opened it.  
  
************************************************************  
  
"I wonder where they're going," Tulia said.  
  
"Out to get Tyra obviously," Muddy said smartly, "Right Vicy?"  
  
"You know they won't rest until Tyra's in here..." Vicy added.  
  
"Aren't you just the sunlight in the rain," Sassy said, annoyed.  
  
"Be QUIET!" Katzey commanded, "It won't be any better for any of us if one is killed for talking and arguing!"  
  
Silence fell as Akhal's patrol marched out of sight.  
  
Suddently, someone hurried back. A question, no doubt. A few minutes later he rejoined the patrol, a smug grin on his face. They continued marching.  
  
"Martin help Tyra..." Tulia said silently.  
  
************************************************************  
  
" What did she say?" Akhal asked the messanger.  
  
"She said use any methods you can to find the hare."  
  
Akhal stepped back and smiled.  
  
"Continue marching," he said, "Tommorrow the clearing and the surrounding woods will be burned to the ground!"  
  
Just then it started storming, complete with lightning and thunder.  
  
"Or not," he added. 


	16. Chapters 21, 22, 23

Book Three, Chapter 1 / Chapter 21  
  
Inside the box were the records of Camp Tussock. Many were slightly burnt.  
  
"How will these help me?"  
  
"Only you could have found them, at exactly the spot your mother dropped them. Only that faint memory could have lead you to that spot."  
  
Suddently Tyra remembered.  
  
It seemed as if it had only been yesterday. She was being carried out of a burning, charred fire by her mother. Her mother was crying. Why? She didn't know. Something a mottled gray confronted her mother.  
  
"Come on, old hare," It said, the same voice that had confronted her and her friends earlier. "Try to get past me. Only there is freedom!"  
  
Suddently her mother shouted.  
  
"EULILIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" She pinned something on Tyra's tunic front and sat her down behind her.  
  
"Get out of my way, fox," she said.  
  
"No, I've been wishing for a good fight-"  
  
"I don't forgive and I don't forget!"  
  
"You will forget soon, hare, and be forgotton-"  
  
That was all she could remember.  
  
It took Tyra a few minutes before she realized she was crying.  
  
************************************************************  
  
It had been a day since Akhal set out, and still raining. The guards were misreble, cold, and unhappy.  
  
"Why do we have to do this? It's stupid!"  
  
"Because Predak told us to. What were you going to do, refuse?"  
  
"I almost did, Choptail."  
  
Choptail snorted.   
  
"Yah, and pain of death kept you from going on, Lardface!"  
  
"Like I would have refused!" Lardface said.  
  
"Let's just all get along?" The other weasel said (who happened to be Terry), but all to late, because the other guards were rolling around fighting (in the very rain they hated to) and were heading for a huge tree. Terry snuck over to the prisoners.  
  
"Hello," he said, "If you trust me, I can help you. All in the service of the Mossflower Branch of the VRAE."  
  
************************************************************  
  
A few days had passed, and it was early morning, the threat of rain still hanging on. Tyra and Katze sat on a nearby haybale.  
  
"I should go see if I can rescue my friends soon-" Tyra said.  
  
"Tyra, there is something I must tell you..."  
  
"What is it?" Tyra said, confused.  
  
"There's a patrol looking for you, and, well, they know where you are-"  
  
"How?"  
  
"I-I-well, I told them."  
  
Tyra was enraged.  
  
"Now who can I trust?!"  
  
"Me, for one last time. Run, as fast as you can. Take the lower exit. The woods will be burned down. If you can, make it to your ship and leave. That's all you can do."  
  
"No that's not! I can't leave my friends!" Tyra climed down the ladder into the lower part of the barn and dashed out.  
  
Katze stared out the window as she left, then, knowing his collection of weapons would be taken by the patrol, hid the one sword that was the best, and most polished, under a pile of hay where only one creature would ever find it.  
  
Tyra.  
  
He pulled open the doors and began to act like he was sweeping, forming the lies in his head to tell the patrol.   
  
Chapter 22  
  
It had started raining again. Tyra had run for two hours non-stop away from the barn, and had covered a distance about as much as that between Redwall Abbey and the ruins of Camp Tussock. Now she collapsed, panting. She knew no vermin would be able to cover that distance in the time she had.  
  
She was safe.  
  
************************************************************  
  
It was only then that Akhal and his patrol entered the barn. All they found was Katze sweeping some excess hay out the doors. He looked at them as they arrived.  
  
"What do you want here?" he asked.  
  
"We've come for the hare, just as you said."  
  
"What hare?" Katze replied, figuring to play it dumb.  
  
Akhal was not very happy at that. He drew his sword and pawed the edge.  
  
"It would be better if you didn't play it dumb, my friend. Better for both of us, I would say."  
  
Katze's eyes flashed.  
  
"I am no friend of yours!"  
  
"Now, we have to change that. You aren't any friend of ours, if I remember, but you are of Predak, let's see how you look in her eyes when we take you back with us."  
  
"I'm not going anywhere."  
  
"Now, if you cooperate it makes it a lot easier an everyone, and even your two friends." Akhal said, a glint in his eyes.  
  
"I don't think that would be a good idea. They're too young to be envolved in any of this."  
  
Akhal was not doing to good with this job.  
  
"We have your granddaughter, cat. Are you going to come quietly or do we have to use a little persuasion?"  
  
Katze blanched white.  
  
"I'll come..." he said weakly, "Just don't do anything to Katzey..."  
  
Chapter 23  
  
The two VRAE members with Predak called a secret meeting that night.  
  
"I'm feeling that something's going to happen to either the prisoners, or to the two young hares still out there," Terry said.  
  
"I thought there was only one hare out there, the one named Tyra!" Sragg said. Sragg happens to be Akhal's brother.  
  
"I wish we had the rest of the VRAE here, it would make it soo much easier."  
  
"I just want to get this over with, so I can go back and see Magnolia." Sragg said. Magnolia was his wife.  
  
"I know she's pining for you," Terry said, "But we have to get this over with, if you ever want to see her again."  
  
************************************************************  
  
The only one awake now, Katzey watched as the two weasels talked over their fire, then put it out for the night. All she could think about was the night they spent at the otter and his wife after they had gotten off of the SeaQueen. Now she wondered if they would ever see Tyra again.  
  
************************************************************  
  
In the reaches of northern Mossflower, Tyra lit a small fire out of dry brush. All she did was sit there, thinking of how nice it would be to have Katzey or Tulia or someone here, instead of just her, running away from Predak and the weasels. But it was just then a voice came out of the tree cover, and Tyra lept up, startled. 


	17. Chapters 24, 25

Chapter 24  
  
The thing stepped out of the woods. It was a hare about Tyra's age.  
  
"Hello..." the hare said, then sat down timidly.  
  
"Hi..." Tyra said warily.  
  
"I'm Nicole..." she said,"...who are you?"  
  
"Tyra. Why?"  
  
"You aren't safe here, you have to head north. That's the only safe place for you."  
  
"Why--"  
  
Just then they heard the crackling of flames and both of them lept up and ran as flames overtook where they had just been.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Akhal smiled as it became apparent that the flames he had set began to eat up this section of woods. Why he was so obsessed with fire was beyond him, but all he knew is that it got the job done. By the time the fire died out, it would be too easy to find anyone standing on where the trees had been. But they couldn't control how far it went...  
  
************************************************************  
  
Terry, who had really good hearing, sat bolt upright when he heard the crackling over a mile away. He shook Sragg awake.  
  
"Hey," he said, "Sragg...do you hear something?"  
  
Sragg, who had equally as good hearing, nodded.  
  
"Flames, but they're not coming this way."  
  
Terry sighed.  
  
"That's it. Those two hares are done for."  
  
************************************************************  
  
The flames had long since stopped. Tyra and Nicole stood at the last little bit of trees left.  
  
"That was stupid of them," she said.  
  
"Who?"  
  
"The vermin."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"They set the woods on fire."  
  
"Well, what's going to--"  
  
But that statement was cut short as fifteen of Akhal's smaller patrol spotted them (as they were in the little bit of woods too) and began to run at them.   
  
Chapter 25  
  
Tyra and Nicole lit off in the opposite direction.  
  
"Where the heck are we going?" Tyra said, panting heavily.  
  
"Away from--"  
  
But her words were cut short as both collided with a huge wall.  
  
"Oh crud!" Tyra shouted, "We're dead now!"  
  
Nicole spun around as something closed behind them.  
  
They were trapped. Outside they heard a vermin laugh.  
  
"After long seasons you're ours finally!" one of them shouted. "Send a runner to Akhal, tell them that we've got them."  
  
Tyra sank to the floor.  
  
"We have to get out of here."  
  
Nicole leaned against the wall.  
  
"Aye, but how?"  
  
Tyra sighed.  
  
"Start working on the hinges, that's all I can say." Tyra rose and reached for her sword. That's when she realized it wasn't there.  
  
"Nicole! I've lost my sword!" she shouted.  
  
"Don't be surprised. So have I."  
  
"What the heck are we going to use to get out of here?" Tyra was at the point of freaking out. Unsurprisingly.  
  
"Calm down. The fact is: We AREN'T going to get out of this." Nicole sank down, as did Tyra. "We have to wait it out."  
  
************************************************************  
  
Back at Akhal's main camp, the triumphant runner came in.   
  
"THEY'VE GOT BOTH OF THEM!" he shouted, obviously proud to bring the news. Stupid vermin.  
  
Katze, who happened to be just sitting there, the threat to hurt (heh-heh) his granddaughter still hanging over him, lept up.  
  
"What?!"  
  
"Sit down, old one!" Akhal said, exiting his tent. "Good, where are the idiots?"  
  
"They're on the other side of the burning. They have them in that old rusty thing over there. The one that looks like some sort of metal trailer."  
  
"I see," Akhal said, pushing Katze back to a sitting position. "We'll head over there right now. I'll send a messenger to Predak. You there!" The unlucky weasel he pointed to happened to be...Sragg.  
  
"Oh it's you," Akhal said, his voice grim. "Well, brother, you can carry the news back to Predak for me. Bet you never thought you'd get that honor."  
  
Sragg left to go back to the tent that he and Terry shared.   
  
"I have to go to Predak." Sragg's face was twisted with anger and hatred for his older brother. "They have Tyra and the other hare. The messanger just came in."  
  
Terry winced.  
  
"See how the others are doing. I guess that we'll probably meet you on the way back..."  
  
"Yes. See you then." Sragg immediatly left the camp carrying the news back to the home camp. 


	18. Chapters 26 and 27

Sragg had just delivered the news to Predak, and went to visit with the Redwallers, Katzey, Hone, and Boulonnais.   
  
"Listen, all of you," he said, "Akhal's troop has caught Tyra and two others, a hare named Nicole and your grandfather, Katzey. They're going to be coming veeeery soon. Unfortuanatly, we're all going to have to trek back to Redwall. I have to return and see that Terry's taking care of Katze, and soon Tyra and Nicole. I'll see you soon." He left as another runner left to alert Eric and Ed at the camp near Redwall.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Tyra and Nicole were leaning against the wall they had first collided with, both rubbing an aching face. It had been at least a day (going by the fact that Sragg isn't the best runner in the world) and it was getting very tiresome not having anything to do but sit around and think of your fate. Tyra had long given up on trying to break out, now it was just annoying the guards. She picked up a long stick of hay and walked over to the door, then began to rub it in one of the guard's ears.  
  
"Cut it out hare!"  
  
Tyra rubbed harder. The guard frowned.  
  
"Your life being so short you would think that you would wisen up! Stop!"  
  
Of course, Tyra didn't. The guard reached up and snapped the hay.  
  
"Now stop!"  
  
Tyra stuck her tongue out at him and walked back. Nicole giggled.  
  
"You have to stop, I haven't laughed so hard my whole life!"   
  
Tyra smiled.  
  
"That's what I'm here for." She grabbed some more hay and went off to torment the other guard.   
  
Chapter 27  
  
At the shouts of the second guard, the "captain" trotted over to the trailer.  
  
"Hare, didn't I tell you to stop tormenting the guards?!" he said. Nicole stopped laughing.  
  
"But that was the first pair of guards today. You said nothing about the next pair." Tyra said innocently. Nicole snorted.  
  
"Any guards then, hare. You've been warned." He walked off.  
  
"Oh, I'm so afraid." Tyra said sarcastically, then stuck her tongue out at both of the guards and poked them both hard in the back of the head and returned to the back of the trailer, where both she and Nicole burst out laughing.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Len ny began packing up the tent. It was hard with only one of them here. He had to carry it across that stupid fire-scar and back by himself. He could hide it but then some evil vermin would probably steal it. Stinkin' vermin.   
  
"Attenion!" Lenny scurried out and the whole camp formed into shoddy ranks. As Akhal began to start out, so did everyone else. They crossed what would become known as the Great Burning in less than a day.  
  
************************************************************  
  
It was late in Predak's camp-away-from-camp(heh-heh). Hone dozed, leaning against one of the two trees they were under. He sighed, then stared up at the sky. All down. What were they going to do now? It was hopeless. Again, he fell asleep.  
  
A tall mouse, dressed in armor. He startled Hone so much that he almost jolted awake in surprise.  
  
"Do not be afraid, Hone." The mouse said, "Do not worry about Tyra and the other two. The VRAE are watching them for you. They are safe." The mouse dissappeared, and Hone sank into the deepest sleep he had in seasons. 


	19. Chapter 28

Akhal paused his troops right before they reached their destination. Lenny's footpaws shifted on the burned ground. What a desert...and no water in sight. Stupid vermin. He looked back slightly while the vermin who had been grouped around the other camp joined their ranks. Katze was in the back of the line, shivering in the cold wind that had begun to kick up dust. Lenny pulled his cloak closer around him, watching Akhal through screwed-up eyes. Immediatly he felt sorry for Tyra and Nicole, although at this time he didn't know exactly why.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Tyra dozed at the back of the trailer when the door opened. She shot to her feet as Akhal stood in the doorway.   
  
He knew he was taking his chances. To any luck the two hares would be weaker from lack of food and water. His chances were dead.  
  
By the time he knew what hit him, two of the "stronger" weasels had wrestled Tyra and Nicole out of the trailer and into the sunlight, not to mention a few ropes here and there.   
  
It turned out that Tyra still had a rock that the vermin hadn't gotten her to drop. So when Akhal had opened the door she had made a slight paw movement and forced him to move to the side. Unfortuantly now both stood in the sunlight, rubbing their eyes and shivering. Akhal stood in front of Tyra.  
  
"I bet you thought that was funny, didn't you, hare?"  
  
Tyra stood there, her eyes meeting his, silent.  
  
"Answer me, hare."  
  
Lenny stood in the backround, almost biting his nails in suspense. Why didn't she just answer him? It was only going to make her die before she had a chance to fight back...  
  
But Tyra still remained silent.  
  
Akhal broke his gaze and turned to the troop. Tyra and Katze's eyes met over their heads.  
  
"OK, troop, move out. Back to Predak."  
  
Tyra, Nicole and Katze found themselves swept up in the troop's marching. Tyra was forced to stumble along beside Akhal, staring silently ahead, neither looking left or right. Lenny kept looking back, his eyes meeting her, wide-eyed and sorrowful.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Af ter a full day of marching they made it to Predak's camp-away-from-camp. Akhal stopped Tyra then, and the others progressed to the main body of the camp. Picking up a spare piece of rope, he tied it around her, and then pulled her off to where Predak was.  
  
Outside of the largest tent that Tyra had ever seen, Akhal forced her into a sitting position against the tree.  
  
"You're supposed to be out here, hare." He grinned evilly. "Predak'll want to talk to you very soon." He bound the spare rope around Tyra and the tree, then entered the tent.  
  
Tyra glared around the clearing, her eyes taking in every inch. Not very far away, Akhal had laid her short sword. Tyra sighed. No way she was getting out of this one. 


	20. Chapters 29 and 30

Tyra woke the next day, her eyes straying to the tent. A Marlfox came out of it, her eyes meeting Tyra's.  
  
"Well, he did have the hare. Come on, hare, we're taking you and your friends back to Redwall." The Marlfox untied her from the tree, and again she bound the rope around Tyra and pulled her off.  
  
The troops were in file, and Predak (Tyra guessed this must be her, obviously) motioned to Akhal to begin the march. In those few seconds before Predak began travelling at the back of the line, Tyra's eyes met with Katzey, Nicole, and Tulia over the crowd.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Sassy choked on dust. It was hard doing this marching thing, but even harder in chains. She thought that the sooner they got to Redwall the better...but her thoughts turned to the ford, with the pike. She risked a glance towards the end of the lines, but only saw Predak. Tyra appeared to be marching with her head down, staring at the ground. Sassy wished that she could be back at Redwall, her thoughts straying to it, her face becoming absentminded.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Katzey strode on, her powerful steps pulling everyone behind her, making them keep up. She looked strait ahead, over the heads of the vermin. She was the first to see Redwall.   
  
Chapter 30  
  
As soon as they reached the camp, Tyra was again forced off in another direction. And, as before, another tree served as the tying point. A few woodland slaves pitched Predak's tent for her, glancing sympathecticly at Tyra every now and then. Predak had gone off to survey the new catapults. Tyra was left alone.  
  
Tyra jumped (as well as she could) when a rat strolled out of the underbrush. The woodland slaves began to edge away. He glanced at Tyra, and she immidiatly stared at the ground.  
  
"Well, well, if it isn't the little hare who ran off seasons ago."  
  
"Leave me alone, rat." Tyra said, a deathly glint in the downcast eyes.  
  
"No," Eric replied, "I'm going to deal out the punishment."  
  
Tyra didn't see what he pulled from behind his back, as her eyes were screwed tightly shut. All she felt was the stinging pains across her shoulders.   
  
She winced and just kept from crying out. Just as the tenth one fell, Predak and Akhal entered the clearing. The woodland slaves scattered behind a tree, to peer out timidly.  
  
"Leave her, Eric, you go also, Akhal," Predak said. Erick threw something down on the ground and left with Akhal.  
  
Tyra felt the blood running down her back, and that was when she opened her eyes.  
  
************************************************************  
  
"I can't believe they got Tyra!" Katzey exclaimed. It didn't help the mood much.  
  
"Aye," Katze said, "And I admit that it was my fault."  
  
"What?!" Sassy said, looking very confused.   
  
"It was my fault that Predak seized Tyra. I told them where she was, and they took her the day after they took me for not delivering her. I told her to run."   
  
"YOU TRAITOR!" Tulia screamed, drawing the attention of a lot of the vermin camped out. "WHY?! WHY?! HOW LONG HAD IF BEEN SINCE SHE BOUGHT YOU?! PROBABLY BACK WHEN CAMP TUSSOCK WAS BURNING, JUST TO SAVE YOUR OWN SKIN!" Katzey leaned across Sassy, Muddy and Vicy and clapped a paw over Tulia's mouth.  
  
"Shhh...you'll get into trouble and probably killed!" The vermin finally got on with their lives after Tulia shut up.  
  
"Yes. That's why I escaped beign thrown in the flames after I had rescured both Nicole there and Tyra." Nicole stared strait forward, silent. "Then Predak told me to take care of Nicole."  
  
"Why you--" Muddy stammered, almost at the same time that Vicy said, "Bu-but..."  
  
******************************************************* *****  
  
Breton paced the gatehouse, worried as usual. His wife sighed.  
  
"They still can't find them. I'm worried."  
  
"I know. But they can't have been captured--"  
  
The twin bells began to ring. Breton literally lept up the wall stairs and stared down at Eric's grinning face.  
  
"What do you want, rat?"  
  
Eric grinned wider, displaying a few missing teeth.  
  
"Search throught that, woodlander." he said, "You'll be surprised at what you find." He disappeared.  
  
Breton literally ripped open the bundle. Inside were seven things...a ripped piece of cloth from Kessa's apron; a small stick practice-raft that could only belong to Muddy; a polished water-stone he knew belonged to Vicy; a tail-ring belonging to Sassy; an emblem of Tulia's holt that she carried around with her; and then a ripped piece of embroidered habit he knew was his son, Tuthine's. As his eyes began to fill, he saw the final thing.  
  
An exact replica of the medal that Tyra had left here.  
  
They have them all, was his immidiate thought. 


	21. Chapter 31

"Hare--"  
  
Tyra continued to stare at the ground.  
  
"I'm not going to talk to you," she said quietly. The woodland slaves snuck back out and continued with the tent, a few watching Tyra and Predak.  
  
"You will sooner or later, even if it is in a scream."  
  
"I won't scream."  
  
Predak let the end of Eric's whip dangle in front of Tyra's downcast eyes.  
  
"You'll get another taste of this if you don't answer me."  
  
"I don't care," Tyra said, watching a catipillar crawl across the decomposing leaves.  
  
"You should. If would be very painful."  
  
"I still don't care." Tyra knew she was going to die, so why let Predak get her fun out of Tyra's misery?  
  
Predak let the whip curl around a branch. It cracked and part of it fell to the ground, missing Tyra by inches. She winced.  
  
"Let me ask you something, hare. I've heard that you captain a ship called the SeaQueen, although some searats now call it the "Terror of the Seas."  
  
Tyra remained silent, trying not to focase on the branch that had killed a certain catipillar.  
  
"How would you feel if my army and I took this ship, enslaved you and your friends, and set sail? After we conquered Redwall, of course."  
  
Tyra didn't rise. She remained staring.  
  
"Answer me hare. Silence never got anyone anywhere."  
  
Tyra remained silent.  
  
Using her spear, Predak lifted Tyra's head until they were eye to eye.  
  
"You will answer me, hare, to your cost if you don't."  
  
Tyra remained silent.  
  
Predak had been prepared for this. She pulled the whip down from what was left of the broken branch. Even though Tyra knew what would happen, she closed her eyes and waited for the blow to fall. And fall it did, stinging across her shoulders. Her eyes flew open, and one of the woodland slaves shuddered. The whip-wound that was only just being clotted with blood reopened, and more blood spilled onto her shoulders. She winced, and her eyes flickered somewhat.  
  
"Do you want more of that, hare, or will you talk now?"  
  
Tyra's eyes remained coldly defiant.  
  
"No, you speak the truth. I am cap'n of the SeaQueen. She is not a normal ship, like the ones you are used to. She is like my friends and I. She fights evil along side us. It would be to your cost if you tried to take her. You would die. Beware of her."  
  
"Words and wood are no threat to me, hare. I'm done for the moment. You are the one who had better beware."  
  
Predak pulled the spearbutt out from under Tyra's chin and went into her now-put up tent. A few of the slaves looked sympatheticly at Tyra and all hurried off to the main body of the camp. As soon as she was the only one in the clearing, she let her head fall, and only now did her eyes fill. Her death grew nearer, and she could do nothing to stop it. She let her eyes go to her sword, leaning against Predak's tent. Then, her eyes moved to the branch above her head, where the whip had again made it somehow. Her shoulders throbbed and were damp with blood. Some of it had made it's way to her chest and shoulders. The ramada above her head leaked as it began raining.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Pred ak entered her tent, cursing. Ed stood there, staring as the rain began.  
  
"How did it go...er...nevermind."  
  
"That hare is the d***est impregnable beast I have ever seen! First, they catch her and her friend by driving them corybantic, then she does the same to me! She's selectivly mute!" She collapsed on a pile of cusions nearby. "And it doesn't help that she doesn't bend to pain! Everyone we've ever tried to force gives in under pain. Now, I bet there's going to be furphies flying about that I can't even beat a little hare! D*** her!" Ed just stood there, frowning.  
  
"Predak, listen to me. She's just a little hellkite that can't figure out who's in charge. It's just because she's a Tussock. You know them. They always want excess power." But that only made her more mad.  
  
"Ed, you don't understand! We can't afford to lose the condottieri! Even if that's it, she has to bend herself to it. You can try yourself tomorrow. That's not a suggestion that's a command. It's been a long day. Go, now!"  
  
Ed left, scurrying out quickly, glancing at Tyra, now asleep, as he exited the clearing. 


	22. Chapter 32

The clearing was silent, wet, and wet. Dawn was coming, and the area around the tree was sopping and quiet.  
  
Tyra stirred. Her wet eyes opened slowly.  
  
The ramada had collapsed overnight, showering her with the branches it had been roofed with. A particualy large one was across her head, in between her ears. The four corner poles were crossed over that one. Tyra shook the branches off of her aching shoulders and back but couldn't reach up to get the ones on her head off. She sighed. It was hard to be a captive. It started raining again. What a life, she thought sarcastically.  
  
************************************************************Breton stirred restlessly, before sitting up, his eyes wide open. It was dawn, and raining again. His son, daughter, and all the others were outside in this. He sighed. Why was life so hard? Staggering over to the window, he watched as a few straggling forage parties returned to the vermin.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Lenny woke up in the tent that the small VRAE branch shared. Sragg and Terry were snoring, and he was the only one awake. It was raining again. He had to talk to Tyra. He exited the tent and began walking to where he knew the hare was.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Tyra heard a rustling in the bushes behind her. She jumped in fright and got a good knock across her head. Lenny lept out, seeing how she immideatly threw her eyes to the ground as he approached. Poor hare...  
  
"It's OK," he said, "You can trust me." He saw the four posts and one large stick on her head. She was about to slip down again from the pressure.  
  
He lifted the posts from their postion. Tyra looked up at him.  
  
"Thanks." she said, suspicious still.  
  
"Tyra," Lenny said, "My name's Lenny. I'm part of the VRAE."  
  
"VRAE?"  
  
"Vermin Resisitance Against Evil. Started by a searat named Blaggut. We're here to help you. Tyra, your friends are alive and we...well, they're as well as the circumstances give. They want to know how you're doing."  
  
Tyra smiled at him, thankfulness in her eyes.  
  
"Tell them that we'll get out of here. I'll see to it."  
  
Lenny nodded and exited. Tyra looked after him, the longing for freedom following him. Her thoughts drifted back to Redwall. 


	23. Chapters 33 and 34

Ed strolled casually into the clearing. Tyra, as usual, began looking for something other then decomposing leaves to concentrate on.   
  
"Predak's told me that you're becoming hard to break."  
  
Tyra stayed (guess) silent.  
  
"And I see what she means." His eyes took in the rugged state of the branches and ruffled grass. Tyra hoped he wouldn't look at the crashed brush where Lenny had been.  
  
"We aren't going to do anything to you, hare. It's not only you and your friends at stake."  
  
Tyra frowned, but kept her eyes down.  
  
"Look, Tyra, you know Redwall? Well, Redwall's at stake here more then you."  
  
Tyra's mouth began to water, her thoughts turning to Redwall's food. But she kept her mind strait and began staring Ed down. He backed away from her visious glare.  
  
"Look, hare. You need to learn who's in authority here--"  
  
"And it's not you." Tyra said dangerously.  
  
"Now I know what she means," he said in an undertone. He picked up the whip. Her eyes widened. Of course he took it in.  
  
"You don't want more of this, do you? You got your taste of it yesterday. If you keep like this, this isn't the last piece you'll get."  
  
Lenny, hiding in the bushes, trying to et in to talk to Tyra, widened his eyes as he saw Ed bring the whip down, and Tyra fell back against the tree, her eyes wide and flinching.  
  
"I hate you," she said, and Lenny and Ed did not fail to notice the hatred in her voice and on her face. "And I hate everyone else who stands for what you do. I don't care anymore. I live to see you die."   
  
At this, Ed turned and walked off, his pace trying not to show his fear. Tyra stared at the ground again, and drew her knees up as well as she could, laying her head down on them. Lenny shot out of the bushes.  
  
"Tyra, are you OK?" He asked worridly.  
  
"Of course I'm not ok." More blood was running down her back. "Should I be ok? Do I look ok?"  
  
"Tyra, calm down." Lenny left.   
  
Tyra stared after him, mentally chiding herself. She looked down again, as her eyes filled. She couldn't keep up anymore.   
  
Chapter 34  
  
Tyra awoke around noon later that day. Somebeast had ignorantly restrained her even more with a thick, long chain. Now, she could feel the rough bark of the tree against her throbbing back. She couldn't inch forward at all to give her paws a relief, as they were bound behind her back, and now pressed against the tree. She frowned. Rats. Literally.  
  
She heard the swish of the tent flap and the thud of paws on the ground. Her heart racing, she hummed a little, her eyes falling to the floor. The chain was cold against her torn tunic. She couldn't press herself against the tree for safety...someone had thought of this. She couldn't move at all.  
  
Predak stopped in front of her.  
  
"Hare," she said, "You gave Ed a hard time this morning."  
  
Tyra frowned.  
  
"You really must learn to curb that wild tongue of yours. It causes you more trouble than anything else."  
  
Tyra frowned even more.  
  
"And, not to mention, the stupid habit of silence. If you're trying to press for information, it's quite hard."  
  
Tyra snorted.  
  
"Now when have I ever done that?" she said, sarcastically.  
  
Predak again pulled down the whip. Tyra tried in vain to press herself against the tree, heart pounding and eyes wide and scared. Predak laughed evilly.  
  
"Who's got the authority now?" she said, eyes narrowing. "Tell me, hare. Who has the authority?"  
  
Tyra sighed and closed her eyes. Predak brought the whip down.  
  
"Answer it, hare. Who has the authority!"  
  
Tyra winced and shuddered. She wouldn't answer...  
  
Predak brought the whip down again and asked. Tyra didn't answer, unless you call a short gasp in pain an answer. In only a matter of minutes that this went on, Tyra slumped in the chain; pain, stress, hunger, and hate taking their toll, finally. Predak turned to leave.  
  
"We can continue, hare, or we can come to a point." Predak reentered her tent. Only then did Lenny even dare to enter the clearing.   
  
"Tyra?"  
  
She didn't answer.  
  
He took her pulse. Unconsious. It figured. Sighing, he left.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Predak returned to Tyra a little later. The hare was still unconsious. Figured. She might as well wake her up. She had gotten what she deserved. And now she was going to get more.  
  
Predak drew out one of the small vials of saltwater they had stored up for cases like this. Uncorking it, she turned it upside down over the open gash on Tyra's shoulders. She jolted awake, gasping in pain.  
  
"What the--oh, it's you."  
  
Predak grinned.  
  
"So, do you want more, hare? Or do you want that cut open more? Or will you tell me what I need to hear from you?"  
  
Tyra stared at Predak's footpaws.  
  
"Do I even have a choice?"  
  
Predak frowned.  
  
"Just say it. I know you're in pain. It's the only thing that will stop it." She stooped down so that she was looking Tyra eye to eye.  
  
"Listen," she said in a whisper. "You know Eric and Ed and Akhal and them? I'm--"  
  
"NO!" Tyra said, before Predak finished. "I won't. I can't. I will not turn my back on my friends. You don't own me, Predak, like the other creatures you've tortured and killed. You're a liar. You promised them riches. What did it get them? Death. Death and/or misery. I won't fall for it like they did."  
  
Predak straightened.  
  
"Fine then, if you wish to die. You've had your chance to live." She strode back to her tent, and shouted for her captains. They came running.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Pred ak paced in front of her six captains, each of which stood at attention.  
  
"All of you, tell the Redwallers that unless they surrender within seven days, we're going to start executions. I have a few that I have my eye on. One by one. And if they're all dead by then, we'll start battering down the walls. We'll get in there, whether or not they surrender. Go now."  
  
All of them left but Ed.  
  
"Which one is first?"  
  
"You don't know? Of course it would be the hare. Other then being probably the most dangerous, she's probably the most ignorant too. She's first, then it's Katze, the traitor. I'm saving the warrior's son for last. That way we might have a trade." 


	24. Chapters 35 and 36

Tyra, obviously having nothing else to do, sat and watched the woodland slaves scurring about. They were older, a lot older, and seemed to have been working forever. A few kept glancing over at Tyra, then hurrying back to their work, as if afraid that they'll get killed for even wanting to help her. Tyra cast her gaze over to the clearing entrance...and gasped.  
  
Her eyes met the dark eyes of a wolf. She recognized him.   
  
He was Thelen, a member of Flatnose's crew! She dropped her eyes, and he entered Predak's tent, glancing a few times at her over his shoulder.  
  
Tyra remembered him. He was the first one to carry out the order of the old captain of the SeaQueen, which was to take her and her friends to the oars. He was the first one to get in the escape boat when the vermin left, the one who killed the most of the former oarslaves.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Th elen looked around the tent. Predak was standing in front of him, her eyes narrow, looking up to see into his face.  
  
"You wish to come join my army," she said.  
  
"Aye," Thelen replied.  
  
"It is agreed. Report to Scragg. He'll put you with a captain and a brigade. And if you do very well..." Her voice lowered, "You may be made into a captain. I already tried to give it to somebeast, yet she refused. You may take her spot if you do well in our conquest of Redwall."  
  
"I have one question." His eyes narrowed.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Who is the hare out there?"  
  
"Oh, her?" Predak laughed. "She's a captive of mine, one of the ones you undoubtedly passed on your way here. Don't worry about her now." Thelen turned, cast a glance back, and exited. Predak frowned.  
  
"Yes, I know where you came from. I know who you are. You won't live to be a captain, I will see to it!"   
  
Chapter 36  
  
Lenny brought her the news that day. Katze and Nicole had managed to get their paws on the keys to their chains. They would be escaping later that day.  
  
Tyra stared at the slaves, and after a few minutes managed to motion one over here.   
  
"What is your name, old one?"  
  
The squrriel frowned.  
  
"I do not remember. It's been a long time since we have talked."  
  
"You will not give away what I am about to tell you. Do you want the taste of freedom?"  
  
"Yes," he said, his eyes lighting up.  
  
"Well, later today, my friends are going to break out and begin an attack. Will you and the other slaves help?"  
  
"Yes," he said, and went to tell the others.  
  
Tyra grinned after him. There was force in even a small amount of numbers.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Katz e, around noon, began fumbling with the key and his chains. It was planned that he and Nicole would go after Predak and Tyra, and that the others would hold off the vermin. Katze finally got them unlocked, passed the key to Nicole, and dissappeared behind them. After Nicole had gotten out and began heading for the clearing after Katze, (both had gotten their swords back from the VRAE), a nervous guard looked over and his eyes widened in surprise.  
  
"THEY'RE ESCAPING!" he shouted.   
  
Nicole ran faster. Already the others had gotten out and the sounds of battle rang out behind her. Muddy and Vicy had begun to spin in circles, swords streached out in front of them, a whirling wheel of death. Katzey and Tulia had put their differences behind them and were back to back, holding the vermin off. Sassy, Tuthine and Kessa had formed a triangle, and the vermin couldn't get anywhere near them.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Katze strode into the clearing, sword unsheathed. Predak had just come out of her tent. Tyra winced and closed her eyes. That's when she heard the start of it.  
  
"Predak! Let Tyra go immideatly!"  
  
Tyra's eyes shot open, and she shouted, "KATZE! DON'T! SHE'S ONLY GOING TO KILL YOU!"  
  
He totally ignored her. Tyra watched, wide-eyed. Katze brought his sword up and around Predak's, scoring a hit along her chest. But what he did was leave his own open. In what seemed like hours, but was only minutes, Predak brought the whip down and around his footpaw, bringing him onto the ground. Tyra winced and closed her eyes, but not before she saw the only key to the chains roll off into the underbrush. She heard him wrestle himself to his feet but then stagger back, and collide with her tree. She opened her eyes.  
  
Katze lay on the ground beside her. With dimming eyes he looked at her.  
  
"Tyra, forgive me for what I did. I'm really sorry. Tell Katzey I love her...and goodbye." His eyes closed for the last time.  
  
Nicole then entered the clearing, her eyes on Tyra...and when she saw Katze's dead body she screamed and stared at Predak.  
  
"How--dare you!" Nicole stepped forward. "Eat steel, fox!"  
  
"I will remind you that I am not a fox. I am a Marlfox. It is the last thing you will ever hear!" Tyra closed her eyes again. She didn't want to see them die.  
  
She heard a rustling behind her. Lenny undid the chains and cut the rope, then gave her her sword.  
  
"Go get that leader o' ours, an' do 'er in. The VRAE'll join yer cause."  
  
"NO, Lenny, get out of here." Tyra rubbed the circulation back into her paws.  
  
He just snickered and dissappeared.   
  
Nicole now lay across the clearing.  
  
Predak stared at Tyra.  
  
"So, the hare has finally gotten out." Tyra approached rapidly. "I'm so sorry, but I think that I'm going to just sorely injure you so I can make an example for your friends. But before that I'm going to torture you so much that you'll be screaming out the names of the VRAE." Predak swung up her sword. "Then again, maybe the pleasure of three against one is better. You'll die soon, Tyra, and no one can stop it."  
  
Predak had seen Tyra's stroke, and with a thud she brought down her sword and kicked out, sending Tyra in one direction and her sword in the other. Tyra rammed into her tree and slid down it painfully. Her sword flew across the clearing, and broke against a particuarly large rock. 


	25. Chapters 37 and 38

Tyra was nothing without her sword. As she slowly picked herself up, coughing, she twisted Katze's sword out of the turf.  
  
The well-made blade seemed like it was made for her paw. It was light, yet she could tell that the blade was durable.   
  
"The hare uses the traitor's sword. What a surprise," Predak said, sarcastically, "Get prepared, Tyra."  
  
But as she said that, Tyra pulled out the one weapon that somebeast had left on her, that she had never noticed it.   
  
While she was with Katze, she had picked up a pointed piece of wood and baleing twine. Wrapping the twine around wide, flat piece of it, she had made a short, wooded dirk that you could throw and pull back, use as a dirk and stab, or swing in circles. It was quite a useful weapon. She now threw it at Predak, scoring a direct hit on her chest.  
  
Predak stared down at it as blood leaked out on her tunic. With her last thought she threw her own sword at Tyra. It hit her square in the side. Tyra sank to her knees, as Predak fell, dead. Tyra lost all concious thought, and soon the main battle ended, and Tulia was the first to find their bodies.  
  
When Katzey caught up with the otter, she was staring at Tyra silently.  
  
"Katzey...they've killed her..."   
  
Katzey stared.   
  
Chapter 38  
  
Katzey shouted for the others. Sassy was the first, leaping out of a nearby tree. The others arrived shortly after her, panting. Tulia was kneeling beside Tyra, sobbing.  
  
"Katzey..."  
  
"Tulia," Katzey said, she herself close to crying, "I don't think she's--" Katzey leaned down next to Tulia, the others watching. Some of the old slaves began filing into the clearing.  
  
"Now, she's alive, but not by much. I don't think it hit anything. She's lost a lot of blood. Sassy, you go back to the Abbey. Muddy, Vicy, Boulonnais, you begin digging the grave for Katze and Nicole. Hone, you find a sutible place and headsto--"  
  
Hone didn't need for her to explain. He immideatly pointed to the stone that Tyra's sword had first broken on.   
  
"Yes, that will do fine. Dig the hole at the base of that. We'll watch Tyra."  
  
Lenny, Terry, Sragg and the newer members of the VRAE entered the clearing. One of the weasels glanced at Tyra, Tulia and Katzey and shuddered.  
  
"How's Tyra," Lenny asked, looking at her, streatched out on the ground.  
  
"Not good," Katzey said, "We're afraid to pull out the sword. I don't know if--" She glanced at Tulia and then back and Lenny, blinking. He got her point.  
  
"Get her to Redwall." Terry said. "Just start carrying her. The sooner the better."  
  
But before they did, after the VRAE left, they buried Nicole and Katze. Leaving Predak's body where it lay, Tulia and Katzey lifted Tyra between them and strode off to Redwall.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Bret on had heard the sounds. There has to be a riot going on! he thought, thinking the worst. His heart racing, he stared out one of the main Abbey windows, he listened to the sounds of battle.  
  
"REDWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL!" WHAT?! They were fighting them?! Everything stopped as one lone, shrill cry, more a scream then a shout, rang out, the vermin losing heart and running.  
  
"EULALIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!" ;  
  
It was Tyra. Unknown to her, she shouted as she lost her consious thought.   
  
Breton stared out the window even more urgently. The abbot had forbidden him to go out and rescue them, but he knew that they needed his help.   
  
A while later, a squirrel landed on the battlements. He rushed out, embracing Sassy.  
  
"Where have you been? Where are the others?!"  
  
"They'll be coming soon. Tyra's been seriously injured. We have to have the way to the Infirmary clear." 


	26. Chapter 39

Breton's wife heard a weak knocking on the gate. She opened it cautiously. Tulia and Katzey stumbled in, carrying Tyra. After them came Tuthine and Kessa, then Hone, Boulonnais, Muddy and Vicy. Ignoring her questions, Tulia and Katzey began sprinting very carefully for the Abbey door, while the others tried to answer her questions as well as they could.  
  
"Where have you--what have you--how have you--who are--WHAT THE HECK'S GOING ON?!"  
  
"Mum, hush! We have to get to the Infirmiry!"  
  
************************************************************   
  
Once Katzey and Tulia had actually made it inside the bulding, they were stopped by Breton, his obvious displeasure at having a wildcat in the abbey obvious.  
  
"Where the heck have you--wha--what happened to her?"   
  
Tulia frowned.  
  
"Look, we have to move. Either out of the way or get trampled."  
  
Tyra stirred and her eyelids fluttered.  
  
Tulia and Katzey took the steps two at a time, followed by a throng of curious Redwallers.  
  
Tulia almost broke down the door before Sister Barb opened it and motioned them to the first empty bed.   
  
"My, my, Tyra's gotten herself into trouble this time. What happened?" She eased gently on Predak's sword, and it slid out easily. Tulia, choked with tears, shook her head. Katzey wrapped an arm around Tulia's shoulders, not saying anything either. Tyra tensed as the sword came out, winced, but then relaxed.  
  
"She's regaining conciousness. Ewuh, that hurt!"  
  
Barb touched the still-open cut on the back of Tyra's shoulders.  
  
"It's a whip-mark, if I'm not mistaken. Countinous blows, if I'm not mistaken."  
  
Just then Tyra jolted up, eyes wide and breathing heavy. They wondered what they had put on that whip.  
  
"What the--Is dinner ready yet?"  
  
Tulia flung her arms around Tyra. Muddy and Vicy, standing in the door doing crowd control, grinned.   
  
"TYRA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
"Tulia! Are you ok? Did she do anything to you? Where am I--hello, Katzey--what in the name of pete is going on?! Who touched it?"  
  
"Tyra, what happened?" Katzey asked. Breton stepped past Muddy and Vicy.  
  
"We all want to know that. GET BACK TO WORK, YOU HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO THEN HANG AROUND ALL DAY!" The emmassed Redwallers frowned and went back to work.  
  
Tyra began, in detail, to describe what had happened since they had left the Abbey. Everything, including Flatnose, being cornered on the burned-out ruins of Camp Tussock, and then the trailer incident.  
  
As she progressed, the memories became vivid in her mind. Every whiplash, every word was said and described by Tyra. The memories, now bright and being relived, made her shudder even more. The thoughts of fear, the VRAE, everything.   
  
Almost at the end the door was flung open and in strode the rements of the woodland slaves. Breton's wife followed them, making exscuses while she did.  
  
"They insisted on coming up here to see Tyra, I don't know who they are or why they're here--"  
  
Tyra held up a paw.  
  
"Don't worry. Hello, again, old one."  
  
The squirrel who she had spoke to earlier that day smiled.  
  
"I am old one no more. We have again discovered our names. I am Treewind. My friends here lived with me, and we have been together since our home was taken by the vermin, only just before your own home was burned. We are returning there, only just south of Camp Tussock. May you always know where to find us in times of need. Here," he set something on the table beside Tyra's bed, "Take this. It is the emblem of our tribe. You are in our favor, Tyra. I am sorry that we did not try to help you before. We were again afraid that you were one of Predak's spys, playing on us to see if we were still obediant. You were not, and we knew that after Predak...well...after that one time. But by then it was to late. We are sorry about Katze and Nicole. We will meet again some day, Tyra."  
  
They turned and left. A younger squirrel turned again before he went out the door.  
  
"Good luck, Tyra, get well soon."  
  
Treewind called him, saying "Son, come on, we have a long journey ahead of us."  
  
************************************************************  
  
Bre ton stared again at Katzey.  
  
"What is she doing here? Is she part of them?"  
  
Tyra tried to stand, but Sister Barba pushed her back down.  
  
"Breton," Tyra said, her voice harsh and tired. Katzey and Tulia both stepped back. "She is not. You didn't listen to a flippen' word I said. Her name is Katzey Gingivere. If you don't like her, then we don't have to stay here. If I stay, she stays. If she goes, I go. You just don't like her because you're a vermin. You don't understand what she's really like, or what she's done for us."  
  
"Tyra, you need to--"  
  
She lit like she was on fire. The past few days hadn't been to good for her. But before she could say another thing, Kessa stepped in.  
  
"Listen, dad." Everyone stared at her. "Katzey is one of the best friends you could have. If you don't like her, you don't have to. It doesn't matter. You can also leave. I'm with Tyra. If she goes, I go. Take it or leave it."  
  
"Kessa--"  
  
Tyra grinned at Kessa. Katzey blushed, her reddish fur turning redder.  
  
"Listen, Breton, out! The rest of you, out! Tulia, Katzey, I guess you can stay with Tyra. The rest of you, go! Now! Head to dinner, and get three trays sent up here. If anything happens call me. Otherwise, keep it down!"  
  
When everyone left, Tyra, Katzey and Tulia burst out laughing. It was a great sound after so many days of misery. 


	27. Epilogue

Tyra hurried around the building, checking havversacks and other things. Katzey watched her from the door, the others waiting at the gate.  
  
"Come on, Tyra, you're still to weak to be doing this!"  
  
Tyra hurried over to her, handing her her havversacks.  
  
"It doesn't matter. Come on!"  
  
They hurried out to the gate, where the others were.  
  
"Ready?" Tuthine asked. He, Kessa, Muddy, Vicy, Sassy, Hone, and Boulonnais were going with Tyra and Katzey to rebuild Camp Tussock.  
  
Together, they set out north, the medal and the leaf-emblem of Treewind's tribe pinned to her new tunic, Tyra thought that she had gone through alot to see this day.  
  
************************************************************  
  
Sragg knocked on the door of the homely cottage. A female weasel, wearing a long dress (much like the ones of the early pioneer days) answered the door.  
  
"Sragg, you're home! How did it go this time?"  
  
Sragg grinned.  
  
"Magnolia, how are you? Don't worry about me."  
  
"Fine, I guess."  
  
************************************************************  
  
It was many seasons later. Tyra and the others had already begun rebuilding Camp Tussock with the help of Treewind. Sragg and Magnolia were out with their young daughter, named after Tyra herself.  
  
"Tyra! Get over here!"  
  
The young weasel made a face.  
  
"No, daddy! I don't want to!"  
  
"Please, honey? We have to go. We're trying to find a new place. The local vermin are on to me."  
  
"Then let them stay on to you! I'm not going. I'm leaving!" And with that, she turned and ran, hoping to run into someone kinder than her softie father and mother.  
  
"No! Come back, please!" Magnolia cried, her eyes welling up.  
  
"Let her go. There's more of Akhal in her then there ever was in me."  
  
************************************************************  
  
The remaining vermin, now known as the PLTRATVRAE, or Predak Last Troop Resistance Against The VRAE, found her only a few days later. Akhal, reconizing her as his brother's child, took her in. She grew up learning the ways of evil, hating everything for good. One season later she set out searching for Tyra, set to kill. Akhal waved her off, telling her to not kill her, but bring her back. Everyone wanted revenge. 


End file.
